This year is the final year of the one-time forward-funding of education the Legislature passed in 2017. Rolling the $30 million into the base student allocation, or BSA, is an effective way to stabilize districts’ current education funding at no increase to current funding costs to the state of Alaska.
House Bill 236 ensures the districts can continue to provide the resources to help maintain their classrooms status and their ability to deliver a quality educational opportunity to students. In fact, the reality is it would be an actual reduction in funding to districts and possibly their schools and classrooms would suffer reduced services. It’s even more important now to maintain the funding for next year. We will need the money when we start to try to catch up from this virus that has interrupted this school year. Alaska students’ futures and the future of Alaska’s workforce deserves the best education we can give going forward with their education.
— Charlene Arneson
Whittier
Have something on your mind? Send to letters@adn.com or click here to submit via any web browser. Letters under 200 words have the best chance of being published. Writers should disclose any personal or professional connections with the subjects of their letters. Letters are edited for accuracy, clarity and length.